Saturday, October 20, 2007
My Host Parents can Party Like Rockstars
Let me tell you a little about my host parents. They are this really old couple, the husband, Miguel Martinez (or Baben, his nickname) is 86, and the wife, Ofelia, can´t be too much younger, maybe 75. They are so sweet. Last Thursday we went out to the colmado nearby to dance, play dominoes and drink a little. Well, we stayed out til 2am, dancing and drinking, and they were still going strong at the end. Ofelia then woke up the next day around 6:30 to cook breakfast. She is quite the trooper. There is a merengue fiesta next Wednesday, and I can´t wait to see them dance again. They are so cute together.
Cough Drops
One would think that cough drops are for when you have a cough or sore throat, in order to ease the pain a little bit. That is not the case here, however. Anytime you are out at the local colmado, playing dominoes or just hanging out, there are always people who buy you cough drops. They are like mints here. They have a plethora of different flavors in addition to the standard cherry Halls brand. My favorite so far has been the orange cream.
Conversation with a Haitian Man
Right now at my site the coffee harvest is going and there are a lot of Haitian migrant workers. They are some of the kindest people I have ever met in my life. The other day I had a conversation with one of them, although it was quite limited since my Spanish is still rusty. I was able to get bits and pieces of what he was saying, and what he said has really stuck with me.
He said that there are so many different kinds of people in the world, Haitian, Domincan, African, American, Asian, etc., but that when it comes down to it we are all the same because we all share the same blood. He is seriously one of the nicest, friendliest people I have met in my life. Whether he is on his way back from getting water or coming back from a long day of picking coffee, he always has a smile on his face. I was thinking about it for a long time and I can´t help but think how what he said is so true. We may have different skin color, but we are all human beings when it comes down to it.
He said that there are so many different kinds of people in the world, Haitian, Domincan, African, American, Asian, etc., but that when it comes down to it we are all the same because we all share the same blood. He is seriously one of the nicest, friendliest people I have met in my life. Whether he is on his way back from getting water or coming back from a long day of picking coffee, he always has a smile on his face. I was thinking about it for a long time and I can´t help but think how what he said is so true. We may have different skin color, but we are all human beings when it comes down to it.
Community Based Training
I´ve been up in the mountains for the past two weeks or so, having an amazing time at the site where I´m learning all the technical skills I will need when I am at my own site. Sorry if there are any typos in the next few entries, but I´m at an internet cafe and I need to be pretty quick.
The site itself is amazing. We are are at an altitude of about 3000 ft, which isn´t extremely high, but compared to flat Chicago, it might as well be Mt. Everest. It gets pretty chilly at night, about mid-60s which is so nice compared to the hot, sweaty capital. I never thought that I would have to wear sweatpants and a hoodie in 60 degree weather. The scenery and landscape is ever-changing because the clouds roll in over the mountains in a different way everyday. It´s awesome. I hope to get some pictures up in a few weeks.
The evening we arrived at the site we met our host families and I was shown my bedroom. My bed is awesome. It is seriously nicer than the bed I had at home. It´s a nice queen, pillow-top mattress. However, it did come with pink satin sheets with flowers and hearts on it. It´s hilarious.
The great thing about the town is that there is always electricity because they get their power from a nearby dam. Most of the country is on a grid that doesn´t have power for about half the day, so we are pretty lucky.
The last two weeks we built two latrines to replace ones that were in bad condition and a spring box, which catches the water that will be used for the small aqueduct system we are building. Yesterday we began construction on the tank that will be used to store the water for the system.
The site itself is amazing. We are are at an altitude of about 3000 ft, which isn´t extremely high, but compared to flat Chicago, it might as well be Mt. Everest. It gets pretty chilly at night, about mid-60s which is so nice compared to the hot, sweaty capital. I never thought that I would have to wear sweatpants and a hoodie in 60 degree weather. The scenery and landscape is ever-changing because the clouds roll in over the mountains in a different way everyday. It´s awesome. I hope to get some pictures up in a few weeks.
The evening we arrived at the site we met our host families and I was shown my bedroom. My bed is awesome. It is seriously nicer than the bed I had at home. It´s a nice queen, pillow-top mattress. However, it did come with pink satin sheets with flowers and hearts on it. It´s hilarious.
The great thing about the town is that there is always electricity because they get their power from a nearby dam. Most of the country is on a grid that doesn´t have power for about half the day, so we are pretty lucky.
The last two weeks we built two latrines to replace ones that were in bad condition and a spring box, which catches the water that will be used for the small aqueduct system we are building. Yesterday we began construction on the tank that will be used to store the water for the system.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
What a week
I have so much to say about the past week...hopefully I'll be able to remember everything. I added a couple links to the sidebar on the right. One is of all the Peace Corps Dominican Republic blogs. There are a lot of people in my training group that have one, so check them out if you want to see what other people are up to. Also, I added a link to Beth's photos on picasaweb. She takes a lot of photos, and I'm in a couple of them so go look at them. I'm still figuring out how to upload my photos...hopefully I could do it soon because I have a lot of good pics. Now on to the past week...
Last Thursday thru Sunday all the trainees went to visit a current volunteer in their sector to see what volunteer life is actually like. I was visiting a volunteer in a campo (small village) outside Altamira, which is just south of the tourist area of Puerto Plata. In order to get to this village I needed to take a bus into the capital, then a nice, air conditioned tour bus to Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, then a public car to another bus station, then another bus to the city of Altamira, and then a motorcycle to the volunteer's site. On Thursday morning the ground was still wet from the rain the night before, and on my way to catch a bus into the city I completely wiped out in the street. I cut up my hand and had mud all over my pants and backpack. I had nowhere to clean my cut or change clothes because I was already far enough away from my house that I didn't feel like going back. At that moment I really knew I was in the Peace Corps. But that was the only bad thing that happened the whole weekend, and I was even laughing at myself after it happened, so it wasn't all that bad.
The motorcycle ride to the volunteer's site was probably the most amazing drive I have ever been on. It was a little harrowing at times, but words cannot describe the beauty I was surrounded by. The first 20 minutes or so we were driving on a well-paved road, but for the next 30 minutes we were driving on a dirt/gravel/rocky mountain road. I was hanging on for my life as we went up and down 30-40 degree inclines. It was amazing. I got to his site around 1 pm and he showed me around and introduced me to some of the people in his community. I got to see the work he has completed on his aqueduct so far and we pretty much just chilled the whole time. It was very nice to be out of the dirty capital for a change. His site is literally in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. He has no electricity, running water or cell phone service. The temperature at night and in the morning is so comfortable too. It gets down to probably about 70. I drank plenty of unfiltered, untreated water during my stay there, and (knock on wood) I haven't been sick from it. The volunteer there has only been sick twice and both times it wasn't really serious. At around 5 pm that day we hiked down the mountain a bit so we could bathe in the river. That was definitely the first time I did something like that, but I'm pretty sure it will not be the last. Also, I got to poop in a latrine, where according to the volunteer, spiders will bite your butt if you go at night. Needless to say, I did not use it at night. I slept on a futon that he built himself and it was really comfortable.
Friday was a work day for him, so I was able to see how he organized all the workers and how they dig the trenches and lay tubes for the aqueducts. It was nice to see a glimpse of the actual work I will be doing for the next two years. I found out a lot about volunteer life and cannot wait to get out on my own and start my own project.
On Saturday we were supposed to go to the beach in Puerto Plata, but the volunteer we were going to go visit was sick with Dengue fever. Do a google search for it if you don't know what Dengue is. About 1 in 3 volunteers get it at least once while they're down here, so I have something to look forward to. Anyways, instead of going to the beach we went to this awesome natural attraction called 27 charcos. A charco is like a waterfall/spring kind of thing. We went with a few other volunteers and trainees and we got in for free because there is a Peace Corps volunteer stationed there for his job. We hiked and climbed up the 27 charcos, and on the way back down you get to jump off cliffs and slide down some of them. It was incredible. On the last jump I threw my glasses down to somebody so I didn't have to jump with them on. Well without my glases on I threw them pretty poorly and the guy missed and my glasses went to the bottom of the probably 10-15 foot deep spring. It took about 20 minutes for some of the people to retrieve them. For a few minutes I thought I would be traveling back to the capital blindly. Go to http://www.27charcos.com/ to see how awesome it is. I'm so glad we did this instead of going to the beach. Depending on where people stay when you come visit, maybe we could go here.
Saturday night we stayed at this place called the Hub, in Santiago. It was started by a Canadian couple for Peace Corps volunteers and other volunteer organizations as a cheap place to stay. It was only $120 pesos, so about $4 US. It didn't have air conditioning, but it did have nice beds, running water and cable television. We ended up just chilling there, drinking some rum and playing dominos. Sunday morning we left to go back to our host families. It was an awesome weekend.
Last night we had a small party at my host family's house because there was a huelga (strike) today. We did not have training today because of it, so we decided we should take advantage of the situation. There was no sign of a strike going on today, but we still didn't have to go to training. Some people that stayed over ended up going to buy food for an American breakfast. They made pancakes, eggs, bacon and some fried salami. It was the best breakfast I've had since I've been here.
This Thursday we are all heading out to CBT (community based training) where we will be in the campo for five weeks, learning all the technical skills we will need to have in order to complete our projects. The town is in the mountains outside Santo Domingo, and the coffee harvest is going on now, so mayble I'll be able to get some really fresh coffee. I think there is a larger pueblo nearby the campo we are staying in, so hopefully I will be able to get on the internet every once in a while to update everyone. That's it for now.
I think I figured out how to get the pictures up so here are a few as a teaser:
The view of the mountains:
Here is a link to my picture site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee
Last Thursday thru Sunday all the trainees went to visit a current volunteer in their sector to see what volunteer life is actually like. I was visiting a volunteer in a campo (small village) outside Altamira, which is just south of the tourist area of Puerto Plata. In order to get to this village I needed to take a bus into the capital, then a nice, air conditioned tour bus to Santiago, the second largest city in the DR, then a public car to another bus station, then another bus to the city of Altamira, and then a motorcycle to the volunteer's site. On Thursday morning the ground was still wet from the rain the night before, and on my way to catch a bus into the city I completely wiped out in the street. I cut up my hand and had mud all over my pants and backpack. I had nowhere to clean my cut or change clothes because I was already far enough away from my house that I didn't feel like going back. At that moment I really knew I was in the Peace Corps. But that was the only bad thing that happened the whole weekend, and I was even laughing at myself after it happened, so it wasn't all that bad.
The motorcycle ride to the volunteer's site was probably the most amazing drive I have ever been on. It was a little harrowing at times, but words cannot describe the beauty I was surrounded by. The first 20 minutes or so we were driving on a well-paved road, but for the next 30 minutes we were driving on a dirt/gravel/rocky mountain road. I was hanging on for my life as we went up and down 30-40 degree inclines. It was amazing. I got to his site around 1 pm and he showed me around and introduced me to some of the people in his community. I got to see the work he has completed on his aqueduct so far and we pretty much just chilled the whole time. It was very nice to be out of the dirty capital for a change. His site is literally in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. He has no electricity, running water or cell phone service. The temperature at night and in the morning is so comfortable too. It gets down to probably about 70. I drank plenty of unfiltered, untreated water during my stay there, and (knock on wood) I haven't been sick from it. The volunteer there has only been sick twice and both times it wasn't really serious. At around 5 pm that day we hiked down the mountain a bit so we could bathe in the river. That was definitely the first time I did something like that, but I'm pretty sure it will not be the last. Also, I got to poop in a latrine, where according to the volunteer, spiders will bite your butt if you go at night. Needless to say, I did not use it at night. I slept on a futon that he built himself and it was really comfortable.
Friday was a work day for him, so I was able to see how he organized all the workers and how they dig the trenches and lay tubes for the aqueducts. It was nice to see a glimpse of the actual work I will be doing for the next two years. I found out a lot about volunteer life and cannot wait to get out on my own and start my own project.
On Saturday we were supposed to go to the beach in Puerto Plata, but the volunteer we were going to go visit was sick with Dengue fever. Do a google search for it if you don't know what Dengue is. About 1 in 3 volunteers get it at least once while they're down here, so I have something to look forward to. Anyways, instead of going to the beach we went to this awesome natural attraction called 27 charcos. A charco is like a waterfall/spring kind of thing. We went with a few other volunteers and trainees and we got in for free because there is a Peace Corps volunteer stationed there for his job. We hiked and climbed up the 27 charcos, and on the way back down you get to jump off cliffs and slide down some of them. It was incredible. On the last jump I threw my glasses down to somebody so I didn't have to jump with them on. Well without my glases on I threw them pretty poorly and the guy missed and my glasses went to the bottom of the probably 10-15 foot deep spring. It took about 20 minutes for some of the people to retrieve them. For a few minutes I thought I would be traveling back to the capital blindly. Go to http://www.27charcos.com/ to see how awesome it is. I'm so glad we did this instead of going to the beach. Depending on where people stay when you come visit, maybe we could go here.
Saturday night we stayed at this place called the Hub, in Santiago. It was started by a Canadian couple for Peace Corps volunteers and other volunteer organizations as a cheap place to stay. It was only $120 pesos, so about $4 US. It didn't have air conditioning, but it did have nice beds, running water and cable television. We ended up just chilling there, drinking some rum and playing dominos. Sunday morning we left to go back to our host families. It was an awesome weekend.
Last night we had a small party at my host family's house because there was a huelga (strike) today. We did not have training today because of it, so we decided we should take advantage of the situation. There was no sign of a strike going on today, but we still didn't have to go to training. Some people that stayed over ended up going to buy food for an American breakfast. They made pancakes, eggs, bacon and some fried salami. It was the best breakfast I've had since I've been here.
This Thursday we are all heading out to CBT (community based training) where we will be in the campo for five weeks, learning all the technical skills we will need to have in order to complete our projects. The town is in the mountains outside Santo Domingo, and the coffee harvest is going on now, so mayble I'll be able to get some really fresh coffee. I think there is a larger pueblo nearby the campo we are staying in, so hopefully I will be able to get on the internet every once in a while to update everyone. That's it for now.
I think I figured out how to get the pictures up so here are a few as a teaser:
The view of the mountains:
The river I bathed in:
Here is a link to my picture site:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kebmodee
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)